Police attached great importance to combat telephone deception and strive to raise public awareness and alertness through multi-pronged publicity and education in cross-sectoral and multi-agency approach.
Police continue to enhance publicity and education, including by sending relevant reminder SMS to all citizens starting today (September 4) in collaboration with mobile network operators so that the message is able the reach the public more extensively and directly.
The Chinese SMS message appeals the public not to trust the callers who claimed themselves agents of law enforcement department or other officers and requested for personal data or property. They should contact Police when in doubt.
Police received 2,371 reports of telephone deception from January to July in 2015, being an increase of 70% or 976 cases over the same period in 2014. The pecuniary loss rose by around 6.7-fold to around $175.72 million, representing a rise of $152.78 million compared with last year.
Among the cases, “Pretend Mainland Officials” scams are especially serious. There was a significant increase in the number of relevant cases and pecuniary loss. In July, 838 reports were recorded with 308 involving losses totalling $126.27 million. There is a declining trend in overall telephone deception cases since August. From August 1 to 15, 94 reports of “Pretend Mainland Officials” scam were received with 43 successful cases with the loss amounting to $58.68 million.
Besides, the title of District Response Teams, a special liaison mechanism with Hong Kong Association of Banks for combating street scams, has been changed to Scams Response Teams and has been extended to cover remittance trade. Members of the sector can contact the team in their respective Police district on any suspected scams or suspicious transactions for appropriate response action in order to strengthen our effort in combating such crimes.